"Gov. Bentley's position on the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare has been clear and has not changed," Bentley campaign spokesperson Rebekah Mason said in an email response to Griffith's call for a debate. "We will not expand a broken system. Today Gov. Bentley is focused on the Primary Election on June 3rd. He's been out meeting and listening to the people of this state and that's where much of his attention has been focused."

The two retired physicians have opposite views on expanding Medicaid, which is authorized under the federal Affordable Care Act, with the federal government picking up most of the cost.

Parker Griffith (AP/Phillip Rawls)

Griffith, a retired cancer doctor from Huntsville, released his plan for expanding Medicaid on Thursday, saying he would seek a federal waiver to use federal Medicaid expansion dollars to buy private insurance for poor Alabamians.

The ACA allowed states to cover people up to 138 percent of the federal poverty limit, which in 2012 was $15,415 for an individual and $26,344 for a family of three. Estimates are that would add about 300,000 people to Medicaid in Alabama.

Griffith on Thursday accused Bentley of denying those people health insurance for purely political reasons.

He noted that 27 states, including some with conservative Republican governors, have opted for expansion under the ACA.

Bentley, a retired dermatologist from Tuscaloosa, has pushed a plan to reform Medicaid. The Legislature passed a bill in 2013 to change Alabama's Medicaid services to a managed care approach, a move supporters have said will slow the growth of costs and improve care. That process is ongoing.

Griffith supported his argument for Medicaid expansion by citing studies, including one done by the the University of Alabama in Birmingham School of Public Health in 2012 and one by the University of Alabama Center for Business and Economic Research in 2013.

The UAB study found that expanding Medicaid would generate $1.7 billion in new state and local tax revenue from 2014-2020, while the state's cost of expansion during that time would be $771 million, a net gain of about $1 billion for the state.

The University of Alabama study, commissioned by the Alabama Hospital Association, found that expanding Medicaid would create 30,700 jobs in Alabama during the first six years.

Bentley has referred to the earlier studies as "bogus." Griffith disagrees.

"We have these studies that show this is the right thing to do," Griffith said. "And there's been no evidence presented by our current governor that there's a reason not to expand Medicaid.

"In the absence of any evidence, we draw the conclusion that, as so many have said, the reason Gov. Bentley doesn't expand Medicaid is because he doesn't like our president. And that is a very, very weak argument for denying healthcare to Alabamians."